The Virtual Global Taskforce, a coalition of law enforcement agencies, has called for greater efforts to safeguard children from online abuse in the age of end-to-end encryption.
The group warns that while encryption has made online communications more secure, it has also made it more difficult for law enforcement to investigate and prevent child abuse. The taskforce is urging tech companies to develop solutions that balance privacy with safety, such as detecting and reporting child abuse imagery while preserving end-to-end encryption. The group also calls on governments to provide adequate resources for law enforcement to combat online child abuse.
We do not support the idea of a backdoor or weakening encryption. We support the idea of coming up with novel ways of dealing with end-to-end encryption where we don’t undermine the principles of end-to-end encryption but we still enable law enforcement agencies to do their job.” – Paul Holmes, chief executive officer of the National Crime Agency (UK) and chairman of the Virtual Global Taskforce
